How David Gilmour’s Digital Takeover on ‘A Momentary Lapse of Reason’ Pushed Nick Mason to the Sidelines — and Made ‘One Slip’ a LinnDrum Showcase

I was reading about the making of A Momentary Lapse of Reason, and the friction between David Gilmour and Nick Mason really sticks out. Gilmour wanted a modern 80s sound, so he brought in digital recording, sequencers, and drum machines — specifically a LinnDrum and an E-mu SP-12. That meant Mason’s live drums were often replaced or buried. Mason later said he felt like a “session musician” on his own band’s album. Only three tracks feature him on actual acoustic drums, and even those were heavily processed. The whole thing nearly broke their working relationship.

‘One Slip’ is probably the clearest example of that tension turned into a production statement. The track’s backbone is a programmed LinnDrum pattern with a tight, quantized feel — no human swing, no Mason fills. A sequenced synth bassline drives the verses, and Gilmour’s guitar work floats over a cold, reverb-heavy landscape. It’s sleek, a little mechanical, and sounds nothing like the organic pulse of Dark Side or Wish You Were Here. Gilmour himself admitted later he went too far with the technology. When they remixed the album in 2019, they pulled out some of the machine parts and let Mason re-record a few drum tracks. But the original version remains a time capsule of a band trying to be current — even if it meant sidelining their own drummer.